Sir Lance sent me back to my dorm when the daylight faded into the darkness of the night. Katrina followed me back and I stopped me from going into my room. She signaled for me to follow and she led me to what looked to be a cafeteria or a mess hall.
Many Pokémon were in here and it was so loud. How were some of them having conversations in here? I felt their eyes lock onto us as we stood in line to get food. I began to feel uncomfortable because of how many were talking and whispering. I could hear some of their whispers. "Who's the new guy?", "What is the handicap doing with him?" "Why haven't we seen him before?", "Is he from that Grandon village?" I swallowed more of my guilt as I heard the mention of Grandon village. Why were they calling Katrina handicapped?
I saw a Zeraora coming up to us. It didn't look happy. Katrina looked away from the Pokémon as they approached.
"Katrina! What the hell!" She said, grabbing Katrina by the shoulder and forcing her to look at her.
"Do you need something Zeina? I am busy showing the new recruit where the food is." She said while pointing to me with her folded paws.
Zeina looked at me and I saw her tail swish behind her. She walked closer to me and had a devilish grin on her face. It made me feel even more uncomfortable how much she looked like she was ready to pounce on me.
"Oh this little guy." She reached out and began scratching my ear. It kind of felt nice.
"Now who might you be sweetie?" She asked.
"Hmm. My name is, hm, Koro." I said as I was losing myself in the feeling of her scratching me, but something didn't feel right. I pulled away from her and felt my head clear. Katrina huffed and said, "What do you need Zeina?"
She was still looking at me as she answered, "I received your punishment for you locking me in my dorm. All because little miss handicap wanted to investigate the meteor sight by herself." She snapped her head towards Zeina and I felt rage from Katrina towards Zeina.
"I felt that I was fully capable of looking at the crash site without your annoying presence there." Katrina said.
"Well, I heard about what you took down in Grandon village and I am sorry to hear about the losses. I can say you finally did something right."
"Thank you. Now you can go. Koro is going to be my new partner and I am sure that he is going to be less of an annoyance than you are."
"Oh, that's not fair. Why do you get the new pup as your partner? Did you beg your master for him?" Zeina teased.
"Don't you DARE defile Sir Lance's name." She yelled and I could see the rage in her eyes. Was she losing control?
"Wow, wow. Calm down handicap. I didn't mean anything by it." Zeina said, raising her paws in defense.
They both just stared at each other. The tension growing thicker in the room. Other pokemon began to notice. They watched and waited with anticipation. Some looked excited at the scene that could happen. Did this happen a lot?
"Girls, girls, let's calm down and just get some delicious grub." A slurpuff said getting between the two of them. If that's what it took to break the tension in the air then it was good.
Every one went back to their food as we grabbed a bowl for ourselves, but I could still feel something there. Katrina wasn't happy. She didn't show it, but I felt it. Somehow, I knew it.
She only stared at her bowl of soup. I took small sips and waited for something to happen. She finally shifted her gaze, but I wished she hadn't now. She stared at me with what I think was annoyance.
"How dare you let her defile the master's name like that?! You even shamed the lucario species by letting her scratch you behind the ears? I mean what was that?" She bursted with rage.
I didn't know how to answer. I just looked at her.
"That was shameful? I thought that was how Pokémon were around each other." I said, but she only crushed the cup that she had in her paws.
"What are you? Not even self-respect is in your useless mind? How is it that you know ancient fighting styles of our people and yet you can't think of giving them a piece of honor."
"What do you mean ancient styles?"
"When you fought Sir Lance. It was like you were mirroring him until you became more, more like the monster. "
"I am sorry for not knowing. I should have known."
"No you shouldn't have known. You really are something different."
She took a sip from her soup and I felt a little better than before. I went to finish my soup, but someone had flipped the bowl out of my hands into my face. The stew burning my skin. I fell to the floor and struggled to see what had done this to me. I looked up and saw the sceptile from before. He was laughing.
"Oohoohoo. This is great. I get to pummel him after all." He kicked my face and I fell further to the ground in pain and anger. I could feel the monster scratch at my mind. He wanted out. I could feel my strength fading with each passing moment. The sceptile kept kicking me and laughing.
"You need to stop or you will regret it." I said holding my stomach.
"Heh. That's funny Lucario, I didn't think someone like you had such confidence."
"Stop it, Seeradans." Katrina had said standing on the table.
"No no no no no no no. This is mine and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I know I will get punished for starting a scene, but he deserv-" She had thrown her bowl into his face.
This is gonna be fun. Wait, we need to stop this before it got worse. Seerdans threw a piece of his tail at her, but she caught it before it hit her in the face.
Everyone had gone silent again. I saw Zeina in the corner of my eye. Sparks were flying from her whiskers. Everyone was on the edge of their seats.
Let's do this. No. I have to get away. I have to do good, but he needs to hurt. I stood from the ground and stared at the soup covered sceptile. He stared back at me and I knew what I was going to do.
I charged forward and slammed my fist into his stomach. I was quicker than what he thought, but he quickly recovered and grabbed my arm. He lifted me in the air and pierced my skin with his sharp claws. A dark substance ran down my arm. It was a lot darker than normal blood. Seeradans dropped me in disgust when my blood touched him.
"What in the name of Arceus is that?!" He said trying his best to wipe the blood off on the table.
I just stared at him. He wasn't hurting enough. He needed to feel real pain.
"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"
Everyone snapped their necks toward who had yelled. I slowly turned and saw Sir Lance standing at the doorway. His intense stare locked on me. I felt my strength leave me. The monster was running away. I fell to the ground and grabbed my wrist. It felt like it was on fire. The color red, dying my fur. It was my blood. Regular blood.
"ALL OF YOU! LIGHTS OUT NOW!!! OR I will personally see to it that you will be scrubbing the floors of the cafeteria WITH YOUR TONGUE FOR A WEEK!!!" He screamed at us.
"Katrina and Koro you stay here. Any questions?"
Everyone responded in unison, "No Sir!" They all tumbled out of the room and Katrina and I were left in the middle of the room with a mess surrounding us.
I wanted to sleep. I felt so tired as I knelt on the ground, holding my arm.
"Stand up. "
I did my best to hold my weight up. He walked forward and grabbed my hurt paw. He stared at it and then pulled out what looked like a small jar of blue jelly. He opened it and rubbed my arm. A stinging pain ran through my arm, but then it went numb.
"Your arm will be fine." He said walking over to Katrina who was doing her best to not look at him. She was ashamed.
"I thought I had sent you to your barracks. Was that not my order?"
"Yes sir."
"Don't let it happen again. I don't want the beast out in the guild. Dismissed." He stated.
Katrina left without lifting her head from the ground. Sir Lance turned back to me and began walking out of the cafeteria.
"Follow." He commanded and I quickly caught up to him. He walked through the corridors swiftly and we ended up in the clearing where we had fought. I slowed down and really took in the damage that we had left here. The moonlight shining well enough for me to see what was left.
Black stains were left spectacled around the clearing. The bigger stains were near the tree line. I stumbled upon the two fallen trees where I had landed. The impact made on the trunks were bigger than my body size.
"I want you to make an aura sphere. Show me your aura." Sir Lance said standing in the middle of the clearing.
I walked up to him as he began to form a stance. He moved his hands through the air and rested them about a forearms length away from each other. The appendages behind his head began to rise as a light appeared in between his paws. A small ball of light grew until it was bigger than his head. It shined with a light blue light on the outside with a darker blue rimming in the middle with the center being a white center. It's brilliance illuminated Sir Lance's figure in the darkness.
"Show me yours." He commanded.
I held out my paws and expected something to happen.
"Form an aura sphere Koro." He yelled.
"I can't. I don't know how. " I saw throwing my paws down I frustration.
"That is not possible. You know the ancient forms of our people and yet you don't know the simplest thing about aura. You lie. SHOW ME!" He said and he threw the aura sphere at me.
I threw my paws up and blocked the sphere as it collided with me. I fell to the ground from the force of the sphere.
"I don't even know where I come from. I have nothing. No memories of a childhood. Only from these past few days. I don't know what you want from me." I said, trying to get off the ground.
"So what Katrina reported to me was true."
I looked at him in confusion. He already knew?
"I needed to be sure. Now come here." He motioned.
I came over to him and he sat down on the ground and crossed his legs and pointed at the spot directly in front of him. I sat down and I was even more confused. What was his motive for everything? This crazy old lucario acting one way and then doing another.
He grabbed my paws and held them up.
"Aura is this. Feeling everything and anything." He motioned his arm to the surroundings.
As a lucario, you can feel the life force of everything. What you saw was the manifestation of my aura. All creatures have different auras and it is fairly easy to see which are good and which are there to hurt."
I felt a pulse as he held my paws.
"What was that?"
"Aura is empowering. I saw it in your fighting, before you fell to your animalistic side. Now try and focus on my aura. Just feel."
I closed my eyes and tried to only think about my surroundings. At first there was nothing, but then warmth. I saw a faint blue outline in front of me. I think it was Sir Lance. His aura was light. Light pulsing like a heartbeat. I stretched the sensation further and began to see the other Pokémon in the clearing. Many were asleep and resting. Most were light and warm. Then I looked at myself. A mixture of dark and light feelings were stuck together. I focused on the dark and felt something rip at me.
"KORO!" Sir Lance yelled as he smacked my face.
I opened my eyes and saw him looking hunched over my body. I was laying down.
"What happened?" I asked, getting up from the ground. I noticed that it was morning already.
"You were turning into the monster. You become a large creature with huge fangs and large claws. Muscles bigger than any machamps that I have seen and a large tail following you." He said, still wearing a concerned look on his face.
"Did I attack you?" I asked.
"No, I sense that your dark form is afraid of me. That if I am near it won't dare do anything to upset me." He said.
I looked in front of myself, learning more and more about the thing inside me. I felt different with my aura sensory opening more and more to me. I began to notice more of the things around. I felt more focused and aware of things.
"You will need to practice more to open your aura further and further. We will see your resolve. " Sir Lance said, getting up and walking to the dark corridor that led to the underground hallways.
Katrina quickly popped out of the hole and sat down near the edge of the tree line. I felt guilt and sadness emit from her. She must have felt horrible about yesterday. Closed my eyes again and began to feel more and more aura. I felt myself get more and more lost in seeing the aura. It was more peaceful there. I looked at Katrina's aura more closely. She was sad.
She twitched and looked at me. Something felt wrong. Her aura got closer and closer to me. I felt something grab my neck and opened my eyes to see Katrina glaring at me. The same rage she had towards Seeradans was aimed toward me.
"Don't ever look at my aura like you did." She said with a stern tone.
I think I crossed a line.
"If you go too far into someone's aura, they will feel it. They will feel someone there. Lucarios understand how far to go with it." She said slowly letting go of my neck and walking back to her spot. I could feel more guilt and feelings of being ashamed emitting from her. I wonder why